At least Andy Murray can never say that the All England Club is not mindful of what it would mean to him and the rest of Britain to watch a home player win the sport's greatest title of all. For the fourth match in succession, Centre Court will be at the British No1's disposal today and even Tim Henman did not have that luxury in his treasured Wimbledon career.

Yes, in the past three years, when he failed to navigate the first two rounds, Henman played both matches on the hallowed ground, but never in his career was he treated to it in the opening four, as the 21-year-old has been this year. Indeed, if Murray reaches the final in six days' time, he will have played every match on Centre. The probable quarter-final against Rafael Nadal (assuming that Murray and the Spaniard win today) and the semi-final are unlikely to be played anywhere else. He will be on first name terms with the Royal Family by then.

Such an advantage is enormous and could be construed as a trifle unfair - Nadal, the No2 seed and twice a finalist, plays today for the second time in this year's tournament on No1 Court, but do not expect him to moan about it, he just gets on with life. Wimbledon rightly wallows in its reputation as a championship that is fair and just for all, but if the No12 seed plays all his matches in one place, might those who have bought tickets for No1 Court in the hope of watching Murray play not have a grouse?

All is fair in love and assisting the chances of Murray becoming the first British male singles winner since 1936. Murray will not mind a bit and neither will Richard Gasquet, the Frenchman who confronts him today. Gasquet, 22, reached the semi-finals in SW19 last year, where Roger Federer trounced him, and has won only 16 of his 28 matches in 2008, as opposed to Murray's 26 out of 36. The grass courts have awoken the man from the South of France.

It often helps to have a new coach, too, as Murray would testify. Gasquet recently parted company with Eric Deblicker, one of the old school, to join forces with Guillaume Peyre, who was in Marcos Baghdatis's corner when the Cypriot was in full flow, reaching the Australian Open final in 2006. Gasquet had become regimented and depressed after three years with Deblicker but Peyre has him bouncing again. “I didn't want to keep hearing him say, ‘Oh, I've got a bad draw,'” Peyre said. “I told him he had to be a man, to take what he had and work.”

Gasquet, as with Murray, is placing more emphasis on physical work because he, also like Murray, has a game that does not need much tinkering with but has sometimes foundered in the endurance stakes.

Gasquet is ready for today's noise levels and he knows that Murray will have in the back of his mind the loss in the BNP Paribas Masters last November to Gasquet (although the Scot won the second set 6-0), which deprived him of a place in the Masters Cup tournament in Shanghai and sent the Frenchman there in his stead. “The Centre Court crowd is not like Brazil,” Gasquet said. “The English are very respectful.”

Peyre has told him that he cannot be passive against Murray, that he plays a lot like Gilles Simon, the fellow French player whom Gasquet beat on Saturday, but that he “doesn't miss any volleys”. Fascinatingly, Peyre said that Murray is the kind of opponent who can put his foe to sleep. Not on Centre Court today, one would fancy.

Murray is loving every minute of Wimbledon, something he had not experienced before. “My attitude going into the event this year has been different,” he said. “Having missed it last year [because of injury] I knew I had to enjoy the experience because to miss any one of the grand-slam tournaments is not a nice feeling at all. I've always been very competitive at everything I've done and I need to take that attitude with me into the second week. I need to be fired up from the first ball against Gasquet.

“I'd been too stressed in the past. I didn't deal with these situations very well, I was almost too happy with what I'd done and that was reflected in the fourth round against Baghdatis in 2006 [where he lost in straight sets]. I'm better prepared to go deeper in these events now. It's one of the only things I've done well in my whole life.”

This is a contented, thoughtful, expressive and measured Murray and what a joy it has been to see him go about his work this past week. Wimbledon wants him to win, you only have to analyse the schedules to appreciate that. Can he do it? Perhaps. But it will not be for the lack of wanting it.